Safari and Money

Well, I'm a week in so I thought it was a good time to catch everyone up on my time so far. Work last week went well. The typical work day is 9am-6pm but this generally stretches later when you have meetings with other areas of the world. It also depends on your commute. For the first month of my time here, I will be working in Bawal, approximately 40 miles from our sales office and my apartment in Gurgaon. This drive can take anywhere from just over an hour to well over two, depending on traffic. I will start the trip around 7:30 and get home after 8pm most days. After my first month, I will be working in our sales office and will enjoy a much shorter commute of 15-20 minutes. Work itself will be intense but fulfilling and it will make the nights and weekends that much sweeter.

This past weekend, I explored my street in Gurgaon and became more familiar with my surroundings. It's difficult to describe the scale here as it is so different than anything I have experienced before. Gurgaon is a the tech hub of Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) and many of the world's largest corporations have offices here. When travelling on main roads, you see high rise after high rise. There are several large contractors that are all fighting for real estate and each designs buildings in a slightly different way. This means that the street has a huge variety in building height, size, shape, material, and color. To save on space, many stores choose to open shop in malls. I'm used to one mall with a variety of shops and then a lot of smaller-scale buildings and strip malls where other stores operate. Here, malls are everywhere but not always fully occupied due to their overabundance. I have one next to my hotel that is a four-story open air mall that can hold around 50 shops. There are no stores on the top floor and 80% of the stores are salons and spas. The options are appreciated but I have no idea how these shops stay open. Driving less than a mile down the road, I will pass four more malls. These house movie theaters, grocery stores, clothing outlets (not that I fit in anything here), and restaurants.

On Sunday, I went with a few coworkers to a fort and a natural reserve, both located in Rajasthan. We left early in the morning and arrived at the Bala Quila Fort in Alwar around 10. We walked around and eventually made our way to the top levels which gave us beautiful vistas of our surroundings.

This was my first tourist experience in India and I recognized some differences from the US. First, guard rails are a luxury here. It is up to the individual to not get too close to the edge and to watch for soft spots as you walk on these 400 year old roofs. Doorways were not built for tall people and will not be altered for giants like myself- just duck. Lastly, most things are not labeled, so if you're not with a guide, expect to be left in the dark some of the time.

The safari was in the afternoon after a nice lunch of paneer (curd cheese), lentils, spinach, nuts, and mutton curry. We squeezed into a modified Jeep-inspired Suzuki and went into the Sariska National Park and Tiger Reserve. This park is over 1200 square kilometers (465 square miles) and the roads do not cover the majority of this area. To call this a tiger reserve is a stretch in my opinion as the have taken tigers from other park and reintroduced them to this environment after over-hunting. There are 14 tigers in the park as well as several panthers and leopards. Our guide could have told us any number he wanted to though as we didn't catch a glimpse of a big cat. There were plenty of warthogs, peacocks, antelopes, and deer but nothing that blew us away. The closest we got was a group of deer who caught the scent of a predator and sent out a warning call to others nearby. We waited for quite a while but had no luck.

I want to give you a brief summary of the current financial situation in India. On November 8th, 2016, the Prime Minister, Nerendra Modi, announced the demonetization of the 500 (about $7.34) and 1000( about $14.68) rupee note. This was announced as a way of annihilating corruption and money laundering. This threw the country into a state of shock and financial unknown. The India economy is 90% cash-based (compared to 40% in the US) and over 80% of those transactions involved either the 500 or 1000 rupee note. This was a huge blow to several markets here including agriculture, family-run business, as well as the black market. People could exchange old money for newly printed 500 and 2000 rupee notes by going to a branch of the exchange bank. There were other rules put into effect as well that limited the amount of money in bank accounts, curbing the number of bank accounts an individual could open, and defining weekly ATM withdrawal allowances. Lines became impossibly long at these facilities, forcing individuals to wait in line for hours on end and sometimes being turned away as the branch ran out of new bills.

Currently the withdrawal limit is 4000 INR per week (about $60) which has inhibited those dependent on cash payments. There are long lines at ATM's and many run out of money before they can be refilled. Many residents have adjusted to a cashless economy by using cards or payment apps (PayTM is by far the most popular) but these do not work for everyone. An Indian bank account is needed for many apps to work so I will be using cash while I'm here.

I move into my apartment today so I should have a story or two once I'm settled in.